Los Angeles and Singapore
Riot Games
“Senior Animator” and “Senior VFX Artist” for games such as VALORANT, each with around 5 years of experience107,106.
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Career 7 of 8 · Film, series, games
3D animation and visual effects: characters and worlds for film and games
In animation you bring characters to life; in visual effects (VFX) you create fire, water or whole worlds that do not exist. In the USA, animators and effects artists earn a median of $102,030 a year, and around 4,200 openings arise every year17. 63% are self-employed17.
Characters and worldsRequired: showreel
Free, no sign-up, every detail with a source.
01 · What you do
5 tasks according to the US occupational profile and adverts
- Designing and moving: creating graphics, characters and animation with software and drawings17.
- Working in a team: together with other animators and artists on a film, game or effect17.
- Research: studying references and movement so that characters and effects look believable17.
- Revising: improving scenes after feedback from the director17.
- Hand-made movement: weight, timing and body language, as Riot Games asks for in game animation107.
02 · Who is hiring
Who is looking for animation and effects: from Linz to Tokyo
USA
Pixar
Applications with a showreel of 1 to 3 minutes. Pixar recommends putting CV and cover letter in one PDF file95.
Tokyo
teamLab
Recruits all year round for art, computer graphics and technology, regardless of when you graduate55.
Japan
Anime studios
The anime market reached a record in 2024, with 56% of revenue from abroad12.
Linz
Vimagos Digital Solutions
“Videograph/in” (videographer), from €3,500 a month. Pure animation positions are rare in Austria111,74.
How to find more
Industry meeting points
At FMX in Stuttgart (27 to 30 April 2027) and at the festival in Annecy (13 to 19 June 2027) you meet studios in person76,77.
03 · Applying
What convinces: a showreel of 1 to 3 minutes
- Showreel: a compilation of your best scenes, best first, 1 to 3 minutes as at Pixar95.
- State your part: for each scene, write what you did, such as animation, lighting or effects. Krea asks exactly this for team work4.
- Show movement: weight, timing and expression. Riot names exactly these fundamentals107.
- A focus: better one thing very well than everything a little93.
Portfolio, showreel, CV and the work placement in the 6th semester are on the page Applying.
04 · Pay
What you earn in animation: big differences between countries
| Country | Role | Amount | Type of figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria (Vienna) | “2D Artist” | from €45,000 a year74 | Job advert, expired |
| Austria (Linz) | “Videograph/in” (videographer) | from €3,500 a month111 | Job advert |
| USA | Animation and effects | median $102,030 a year17 | Official statistics |
| Japan | In-between drawings (douga) | average ¥2.63 million a year112 | Survey by the JAniCA association |
| Japan | Key animation (genga) | around ¥4 million a year112 | Survey by the JAniCA association |
In Japan, many start with in-between drawings, the frames between the key frames. Pay there is low, a well-known problem of the industry112.
05 · Progression
Where animation leads: 4 stages
Junior
Individual scenes to a brief, often in a production team.
Animator or VFX artist
Owning your own scenes, implementing feedback from the director17.
Senior
Around 5 years of experience, helping to shape style and quality for others107,106.
Lead
Responsible for a team and the style of a whole production.
06 · Outlook
Outlook: changing, craft remains the foundation
US statistics expect the same number of jobs until 2035. Some steps can be done faster with AI, which may dampen demand17. In 2025, Netflix had a scene for a series generated with AI for the first time15.
Studios still look for hand-made movement: for its games, Riot asks for at least 3 years of experience with hand-keyed animation107.